In filling out a standard employment questionnaire, the narrator takes the command "Do Not Cross Out!" as an order not to omit anything and embarks on a search for his origins and the origins of his fellow Czech citizens.
"Grusa blends masterfully the soaringly magical with the gritty commonplace... The Questionnaire can be read in one sitting--or can be savored chapter by chapter over a long period of time. Each chapter stands up as a story--with a beginning, a middle and an end... Grusa's book is a fabulous fabrication, a work of highly literary craftsmanship, a flawless evocation of a rare mood of innocent bafflement and enchanted omniscience." -- Charles Fenyvesi, Washington Post Book World "Jiri Grusa... must now be counted with the other names of the Czech renaissance... No summarizing can do more than suggest how rich this novel is. It is complex, confident, luminous. It is about the modesty of ordinary Czech life, and about the angels and demons that sustain that life. The Questionnaire is a brilliant addition to the novels of the 'Czech school.'" -- Neal Ascherson, New York Review of Books "His answers are impertinently semi-fanciful and unsuitably but delightfully verbose. They add up to a satirical view of the past and an oblique criticism of the present. Mr. Grusa is undoubtedly a fine young writer." -- The Atlantic
